We travelled to Rotterdam from Paris on a very enjoyable train journey using Thalys. Every train journey so far is easy, on-time, quick and actually quite relaxing. It’s not necessarily cheap but nor is flying when the associated costs are taken into account… it is what it is!
Rotterdam is The Netherlands’ 2nd largest city and Europe’s 2nd largest port. To say there’s a bit of water around this city is an understatement. It’s literally everywhere. They have a very cool 2-level tunnel underneath one of their waterways which spans around 1km. On one level it’s for pedestrians, and on the other? This is the Netherlands… so naturally it’s for cyclists. The Dutch have something worked out with this whole bike thing… more on that later.
The reason we’re here is Deb’s old school friend, Sjoerd, lives here. They haven’t seen each other since year 12 and since we were heading this way, what a perfect opportunity to catch up. Sjoerd has also been very gracious in letting us stay a couple of nights. On our first night, we all headed up to the Rotterdam Euromast – the purpose-built scenic tower which has a beautiful 360degree view of the city and ports & waterways. It’s not that tall, but it was night time, windy, a bit of rain and the lift is enclosed by glass and turns 360degrees, so it was an amazing view. The wind got stronger too where we may have had to stay up there, but we managed to get down ok. Great start to our Dutch trip!
On Saturday morning, we caught the 1hr train ride to Amsterdam, the better known city. Amsterdam has a bit of a bipolar approach to things – it can be seen as really seedy with it’s red light district & “coffee shops” but it’s also remarkably beautiful, has a heap of culture to it and some special feeling to it with the people that we haven’t experienced so far.
To sum up – we absolutely loved it. It’s the most livable city we’ve come across so far, it’s both relaxed yet has plenty going on. The canals are something to see… they’re literally everywhere. Combine that with centuries-old beautiful homes acting as walls each side and the almost candle-lit bridges that appear now and then, it just looks superb.
There’s no car problem in Amsterdam as there are very, very few. Even on a Monday morning, they’re few and far between. The same can’t be said for bikes. They are EVERYWHERE! Never, ever seen anything like it. Admittedly I haven’t travelled through Asia but to see everyone of absolutely all ages get everywhere on a bike is pretty incredible. Initially we were amazed at people riding whilst speaking on a mobile phone… after 2 nights – saw that probably 100times. We quickly became quite in awe of guys and girls being able to:
- ride one bike whilst pushing another “spare”
- ride whilst having a tuba on the guy’s back and a violin on the side
- ride whilst carrying a proper-size ladder over the shoulder whilst holding a paint tin complete with brushes
The funny thing about Amsterdam is those 2 sides mix remarkably well. The city isn’t divided between good and bad – they sort of merge into something that just works. This was probably the city we’ve done the least in funnily enough – the people are just more laid back and it kind of rubs off. We walked slowly around the city, during day & night; stopped and had a coffee more than we have anywhere; caught a canal cruise; hired bikes and rode around the city & botanic gardens and really just enjoyed the city.
As one blog post I read said… there’s plenty of things to see in the red light district & in the coffee shops, but the real action is on the streets people-watching. How right they are…
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